That night, Zhang Xiaolong did not go home. He sat in the workspace and spent the day throwing virtual bottles on oo, sighing "Amazing."
Later, when recalling this experience and combining it with subsequent events, Zhang Xiaolong told a reporter:
"The emergence of oo and its adrift bottle feature marked a new era for social software, an era I call the era of assisted proactive social interaction."
"Previous social software, whether it was the foreign oiCQ or China's QQ, appeared very trendy, moving social interaction from reality to the internet. However, the essence of social interaction did not change; it remained an era of individual proactive social interaction."
Online social interaction, just like real-life social interaction, requires one person to proactively extend a social invitation to another, and then both begin to chat. One party is active, and the other is passive.
This social model seems to have no problems, as our ancestors socialized this way. However, it neglects many people's inherent nature.
People are different; their constitutions and personalities differ. For those who are naturally cheerful and outgoing, the individual proactive social model is not an issue; it suits them.
But in this world, there are many people who are unable to initiate social interaction, unable to proactively send invitations, or even unable to utter a single word.
And there are countless such people. In a simple scenario, if you ask someone to randomly strike up a conversation with a stranger on the street, how many out of a hundred people would have the courage?
Probably fewer than ten.
Online social interaction can reduce the difficulty by being non-face-to-face, but it only increases that number from ten to twenty. The remaining eighty people are still unable to initiate social interaction. This is a persistent problem in social interaction, limited by human nature. I once believed this limitation was insurmountable until I discovered the oo software and their assisted proactive social interaction.
What does this mean?
Let's return to those eighty people who cannot initiate social interaction. How many of them truly fear social interaction and are completely unable to communicate with others?
Actually, not that many, perhaps only twenty at most. The remaining sixty are in an intermediate state. They don't dislike socializing; they are simply too shy to start, don't know how to type, or don't know how to speak.
At the same time, they constantly worry about rejection, about being disliked, about speaking and not receiving a response, and about suffering severe damage to their dignity!
And in reality, many people have been hurt extensively in social interactions. These individuals have developed a fear of socializing, yet they paradoxically crave it. Therefore, they need an enabler, a push to engage in social interaction, while also greatly increasing the chances of avoiding social harm – that is, ensuring they are not rejected and can engage in longer conversations. This is the essence of assisted proactive social interaction.
In plain terms, these people are like donkeys; they can't walk on their own and need someone to herd them from behind.
oo's adrift bottle is precisely such a tool.
It possesses significant improvements and advantages.
It eliminates the difficulty of initiating conversation.
The so-called "initiation difficulty" refers to the challenge of being the first to speak, of initiating the first sentence. This is always difficult because the initiator fears rejection or the possibility that the other party might not respond, which can cause immense psychological harm.
But if both parties initiate the conversation simultaneously, there is no problem.
oo's adrift bottle's chat matching mode automatically pairs two people who are willing to chat actively. They both have the intention to chat, thus fundamentally eliminating the initiation difficulty.
Furthermore, there is incentive-based chat. In previous chat software, the software merely provided a platform and did not actively promote the act of chatting.
But oo's adrift bottle is different. After a successful match, it stipulates that users must chat for at least twenty sentences, with limits on the number of characters and time, ensuring that the conversation proceeds in a pleasant and extended manner.
This is akin to telling those who fear social interaction: "Come chat with me; you won't be rejected. You're guaranteed to chat with a girl for twenty sentences."
As a reward, completing twenty sentences earns a bit of charm value. This incentive may seem insignificant, but for many female users, it is an irresistible temptation, especially when a competitive environment emerges within the community. Competing for charm value might attract a large number of female users to showcase their charm on oo.
Overall, the appearance of oo's adrift bottle is a significant breakthrough and innovation in the social system, and this is also a crucial reason for oo's current success.
This passage is Zhang Xiaolong's summary speech years later, looking back somewhat with the benefit of hindsight.
At this moment, Zhang Xiaolong certainly did not see things so clearly. He merely felt that this oo adrift bottle was incredibly powerful, so powerful that even the most introverted programmer in his company, who had never chatted online before, was still chatting online. He hadn't slept all night, vowing to find a girl who perfectly matched his soul.
Of course, many people believe he was mostly enjoying the thrill of unprecedented chat. However, it's undeniable that Zhang Xiaolong genuinely felt this oo adrift bottle feature was simply amazing!
But Zhang Xiaolong still had some concerns. What if this was just his own opinion? Or perhaps just the opinion of male programmers?
So, Zhang Xiaolong decided to conduct an external survey, and the best target for this survey was naturally the internet cafe!
Thus, Zhang Xiaolong headed straight to an internet cafe, intending to observe the current situation there.
Firstly, most people in the internet cafe were still playing games, but some were chatting, and the majority were chatting on QQ. Zhang Xiaolong only saw a few people chatting on oo, or rather, on oo's adrift bottle.
"Did I misunderstand? Perhaps oo's adrift bottle doesn't have much appeal among the general public?" Zhang Xiaolong hesitated and doubted. So, he decided to conduct an experiment.
He found the internet cafe owner and discussed it with him. After giving him five hundred yuan, the owner's voice was heard over the internet cafe's broadcast: "This internet cafe is now holding a temporary event. Any player who completes one oo adrift bottle function can receive a bottle of chilled Pepsi from the administrator after confirmation. The event is limited to the next ten minutes only, and it will expire afterwards!"
After hearing this broadcast, Zhang Xiaolong nodded with satisfaction. He then got a machine in the internet cafe and played games for two hours. When he got up again and walked through the entire internet cafe, he noticed that almost 50% of the people were now chatting on oo's adrift bottle. As for those who were previously chatting on QQ, they were almost impossible to find.
The event had started and ended two hours prior, so the event's immediate appeal was gone. However, two hours later, so many people were still chatting on oo's adrift bottle, including a considerable number of women. This made Zhang Xiaolong's expression extremely varied as he left the internet cafe.
"Hello, Chairman, this is Zhang Xiaolong! I suggest acquiring a software called oo! However, oo itself isn't important; what matters is its operator. This is a super genius, one who is ten thousand times better than me!" Zhang Xiaolong dialed a number. This was the controller of the investment company behind his Foxmail, and also the helmsman of Yahoo, Jerry Yang.
PS: I couldn't find information on Bodda Network itself and don't know who the esteemed person behind it is. Considering Bodda Network's American-funded background, I've used Jerry Yang to represent them. If anyone knowledgeable has information, please share it in this chapter, and I can make revisions later!